Romain Pujol & Vincent Caut: Avni

Original language: French
Original title: Avni
Translation: David Domínguez i Marion Carrière (in Catalan and in Spanish for Astiberri)
Year of publication: 2014-
Valuation: highly recommended

In children’s literature, we could say that there are two types of books or themes that are very different at a conceptual level. On the one hand, we have educational, instructive books, those that transmit positive values ​​for society and help guide children towards good practices or customs. They are interesting, necessary books and the message and feeling they leave once finished is extremely positive. But there are other types of books basically intended for distraction, humor, and entertainment. Its intentions do not go beyond making the reader have a good time reading, whether it is a child or even the adult who accompanies him in his reading. And if, as in this case, they are books in comic format, then it is much easier to achieve their purpose.

Its creators, the French Romain Pujol and Vincent Caut, jointly created the character of Avni, whose cartoons began to be published in the magazine Toboggan, with a large number of subscribers. Therefore, we are talking about a comic in a comic format that usually takes up two pages per story, although some of them are linked. In this way, each of the books and also the stories have a self-contained narrative cycle, with the particularity that the characters are the same in all of them: their parents, the school teachers or their classmates. In this way, as you delve into the little stories and books, you get to know what each one of them is like, which, despite the fact that they are always in the background, has their own personality and their problems that can range from jealousy , bullying or the strength of friendship.

For all these reasons, it is a very fun and interesting collection of comics for children, since the situations in which this particular character finds himself (or provokes) are varied and always use a satirical tone that even the most adults can Enjoy his particular humor and the tenderness he shows in his actions despite his not always good intentions.